I purchased a Eurail Benelux Pass- still need to reserve & pay ?

Hi,I purchased a Benelux Pass (4 days) online and I plan to travel:Amsterdam -> BrusselsBrussels-> LuxembourgLuxembourg -> Amsterdam-Do I still need to make a reservation for seats?-when I tried to book, it shows the price and says I have to payDoesn't the Benelux pass pay for it already? Why would I need to pay again?Please help. Thanks -Emily

Rail passes cover ticket costs on trains. When applicable, reservations are a supplementary cost to a rail pass. If you were to purchase regular point-to-point tickets (instead of a rail pass), the value of any necessary reservations would still be considered into those costs. Therefore, a rail pass still often works out to be the most economical option for travelers taking multiple trains while in Europe. It just depends on the itinerary.

However, for the specifiic itinerary you laid out, it is not necessary that you take any trains that require reservations. In the Benelux region, reservations are only required on the high-speed Thalys trains. On other trains in this region, reservations are not even accepted, so the Eurail Benelux Pass is all you would need to board.

IC trains in this part of Europe do not accept reservations, so the Eurail Benelux Pass is all you would need to board.

As I mentioned above, the Thalys trains require reservations as a supplement to the rail pass.

For planning purposes, you can use the route search feature under 'Book Train Tickets' on our homepage (www.raileurope.com) just to view schedules for the IC trains from Amsterdam to Brussels. Generally, when you're just trying to access schedules for non-reservable trains, you would have to be sure to leave the 'I have a rail pass' unchecked. On our website, the IC trains on this route are labeled as 'Eurocities' when you pull up the results of a search.

If you want to take a Thalys train for this trip, you would purchase reservations by searching the route under 'Book Train Tickets' on our homepage (www.raileurope.com), checking the box that says ‘I have a rail pass’, and then indicating the type of rail pass with which you'll be traveling (i.e. a ‘Eurail Benelux Pass’).

For planning purposes, you can use the route search feature under 'Book Train Tickets' on our homepage (www.raileurope.com) just to view schedules for the IC trains from Brussels to Liège and Liège to Luxembourg. When you're just trying to access schedules for non-reservable trains on these routes, you would have to be sure to leave the 'I have a rail pass' unchecked. On our website, the IC trains from Liège to Luxembourg are labeled as 'Eurocities' when you pull up the results of a search.

Luxembourg to Amsterdam

Generally, connections from Luxembourg to Amsterdam involve changing trains once in Brussels along the way. Due to the current construction work on the rail lines, connections from Luxembourg to Amsterdam take just under 6.5 hours in duration and involve 3 train changes along the way; once in Liège, once in Leuven, and Antwerp. These are all IC trains, so reservations are not accepted and the Eurail Benelux Pass is all you would need to board.

For planning purposes, you can use the route search feature under 'Book Train Tickets' on our homepage (www.raileurope.com) just to view schedules for the IC trains from Luxembourg to Liège and Leuven to Antwerp. On our website, the IC trains from Luxembourg to Liège are labeled as 'Eurocities' when you pull up the results of a search.

Schedules for the IC trains from Liège to Leuven and Antwerp to Amsterdam are not able to be viewed on our website. For your reference, the IC trains from Liège to Leuven depart every 30 minutes throughout the day and the ride takes 30 minutes, while the IC trains from Antwerp to Amsterdam depart hourly throughout the day and the ride takes just under 2 hours.